Miami Horror

An electro-pop act with a disco-house throwback style, Miami Horror is led by producer Benjamin Plant (aka Benjamin Vanguarde) from Melbourne, Australia. Influenced by pop artists of the 1970s and ’80s such as Prince, Supertramp, and ABBA, as well as new wave acts like New Order, Miami Horror began releasing summery, neon-streaked tracks at the end of the 2000s, then hit the Top Ten of the Australian album charts with their 2010 debut full-length, Illumination. The band became a fixture of music festivals and sharpened their songwriting skills with 2015′s All Possible Futures and subsequent singles.
Plant started using the name Miami Horror in 2007. After some of his remixes became successful thanks to various music blogs, he left film school to pursue a career in music. He produced Gameboy/Gamegirl’s 2008 EP Golden Ghetto Sex, which included the left-field blogosphere hit “Sweaty Wet/Dirty Damp,” and remixed songs by artists like Grafton Primary and Pnau. As Miami Horror, Plant made his commercial debut in November 2008 with a five-track EP, Bravado, on Virgin Records. He developed a performing act with Josh Moriarty (guitar, vocals), Aaron Shanahan (guitar, vocals), and Daniel Whitechurch (bass, keyboards, guitar), played festival dates, and opened for Lily Allen, Phoenix, and Friendly Fires in 2009 and 2010. The album Illumination was released on EMI in 2010, with Kimbra as a guest vocalist on the track “I Look to You,” and Alan Palomo of Neon Indian appearing on several songs. Following the radio and club success of first single “Sometimes,” the record debuted at number ten on the ARIA charts.
As a quartet, Miami Horror recorded a second album, All Possible Futures, and released it in 2015 through Remote Control in the U.S. and Haven Sounds/Dine Alone in Europe. After Shanahan left the band in 2016, they independently released the EP The Shapes in 2017. Incorporating more funk and R&B influences into their sound, Miami Horror issued the singles “Restless” and “Luv Is Not Enough” (featuring Clear Mortifee) in 2019, with remixes of both appearing in 2020. Later in the year, the band released their cover of the Church’s “Under the Milky Way.” ~ Jason Birchmeier & Paul Simpson